Book Review: Redeeming the Routines – Bringing Theology to Life (Robert Banks)

This is one of those books that has a fascinating premise, but doesn’t seem particularly keen to get anywhere. Divided up into five chapters, the first three are outstanding, because they ask all the big questions about modern Christianity that have been buzzing around in my head for the last five years:

If the Bible applies to all of life, why do we only hear sermons on about 10% of the things we do?

How do you apply the Bible to all the ordinary things we do, like leisure, sleeping, walking, etc?

Why is there such a gap between Christianity and everyday life?

And in the opening chapters of this book, Robert Banks asks these questions probingly and intelligently, and digs deeper than anyone else I know.

However, after having asked all these questions, he then has no answers for them. He has some suggestions on how we can look for answers, but these I found a little bit worrying. He’s a big fan of “home churches”, where people can meet in their home to deal with the issues that concern them in real life.

But my worry is that this approach has a tendency to give people an excuse to turn away from the existing church systems, rather than trying to reform them. I’m not saying that’s what he’s promoting, but it’s my fear that that’s what this would lead to.

So if you’re looking for a definitive book on Christian worldview or how to develop a theology of life, this is not your book. But if you need extra convincing that we need a Christian worldview, this is not a bad place to start. 3 out of 5.

About Me

Matthew Hodge

I work in the classical music world in Sydney, Australia. As well as doing interesting data stuff, I'm also interested in the question of how to make classical music mainstream again. I love books, music, films and the smile on my kids' faces when I come home at night.

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